JPS58146238A - Preparation of easily soluble cocoa - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prepare cocoa which can be dispersed and dissolved even in cold water or milk, by granulating cocoa powder, fluidizing the granules, spraying a surface active agent dissolved in liquid oil or fat, and contacting and mixing the solution with the granules. CONSTITUTION:Cocoa powder or a mixture of cocoa powder with sugar, powdered milk, etc. is granulated e.g. by mixing cocoa powder with an aqueous solution of a binder, and drying the obtained wet granules. The granules are fluidized, and sprayed with a surface active agent such as glycerine fatty acid ester dissolved or dispersed in liquid oil or fat. The granules are contacted and mixed with the surface active agent by this procedure, and coated with the surface active agent at the surface of the granule and the inner surface of the voids of the granule. The amount of the liquid oil or fat containing the dispersed or dissolved surface active agent is 1-10pts. per 100pts. of the granule, and that of the surface active agent is 1.5-60pts. per 100pts. of the liquid oil or fat.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention involves making cocoa powder into granules, melting and mixing them with a surfactant dissolved and dispersed in liquid oil, thereby uniformly distributing the surfactant onto the surface of the granules and the inner surface of the internal voids. This invention relates to a method for producing easily soluble cocoa.

The object of this invention is to provide easily soluble cocoa that can be easily dissolved and dispersed not only in hot water but also in cold water and milk.

Cocoa powder is a fine powder obtained by crushing cocoa cake after extracting cocoa mass and removing cocoa butter, so it is very fine and its particles are hydrophobic. Therefore,
Even if hot water is poured directly onto cocoa powder, the mixture will remain the same and it will not be possible to dissolve and disperse it uniformly. Therefore, when drinking cocoa, it is necessary to add cocoa powder or sugar, powdered milk, etc. to it, pour in a little boiling water, mix well to form a paste, and then add hot water. In addition, when making a cold cocoa drink, it floats on the surface and does not dissolve and disperse even if added directly to cold water or milk, so it must be dissolved and dispersed in hot water and then cooled.

In order to improve the dissolution and dispersibility of fine powders, they are often made into granules. However, for example, transfer granulation,
Even when cocoa powder is granulated using conventional granulation methods such as extrusion granulation and fluidized granulation, it has poor dissolution and dispersion properties, and sometimes particles remain without being completely dissolved and dispersed even when added to boiling water and stirred. For this reason, it could not be put to practical use.

This is because the surface of the granules is hydrophobic due to the single fat content of cocoa, and when hot water is poured on the surface, the surface repels water (hot water), creating an air layer between the particle surface and the water layer, which prevents the particles from getting wet. This is thought to be because it simultaneously prevents water (hot water) from entering the voids inside the particles. Therefore, such granules are
The disintegrability with water was poor, and the dissolution and dispersibility was poor.

A method has also been proposed in which cocoa powder and a surfactant are added to and mixed with cacao mass and extruded through a screen to form granules. However, this method not only requires skill to maintain the tensile state and extrude, but also requires skill.
The obtained granules were hard and solid, making it difficult to dissolve and disperse them simply by pouring hot water.

Moreover, even when dissolved and dispersed in hot water, the cocoa had a very heavy texture due to the large amount of cocoa butter.

The reason why the dissolution and dispersibility of the granules obtained in this way is not good is because they have a high fat content and are tempered and extruded, so the air bubbles in the mixture are extruded and the granules are formed with no internal voids. It is considered no good. In other words, it is thought that when hot water is poured, it takes time for the water (hot water) to penetrate inside the particles, making it difficult to dissolve and disperse them.

The inventor of this invention conducted research to develop cocoa that dissolves and disperses easily just by pouring hot water, and also dissolves and disperses in cold water or milk. It was discovered that the dissolution and dispersibility of cocoa granules can be extremely improved by spraying a surfactant dissolved in liquid fat into contact with the granules and mixing them, thereby completing this invention.

In other words, by contacting and mixing the surfactant in the form of many small droplets with the fluidized granules, the surfaces of the 15 particles are completely covered with surfactant, and the surfactant is oily. It is thought that the surfactant easily penetrates deep into the internal voids of the particles dissolved and dispersed in fats and oils, and the inner surface thereof is also covered with the surfactant. As a result, the hydrophobicity of the granule surface and the inner surface of the pores decreases and the hydrophilicity increases, so that when hot water or water is added, the granules can easily get wet without forming an air layer between the surface and the water, and the granules can pass through the pores. It is thought that because water (hot water) quickly penetrates into the inside, the granules disintegrate from the surface and inside, and are easily dissolved and dispersed.

To carry out this invention, cocoa powder is first made into granules.

Cocoa powder can be made into granules by, for example, mixing it with an aqueous binder solution to form wet granules, which are then dried.

That is, the binder aqueous solution is supplied as small droplets by spraying or the like to the cocoa powder that is constantly moving or moving, such as by transferring or flowing, to form wet granules, or the binder aqueous solution is added to the cocoa powder that is in a stirring motion. The mixture can be further mixed, and if necessary, granulated by a known method such as extruding through a screen to form wet granules, and dried to form granules.

It is also possible to mix cocoa powder and binder water injection liquid and crush cocoa into blocks, such as dry blocks without forming wet granules, or compression molded blocks using rollers, etc., and if necessary, sieve. The ability to form granules is i:i]' and r-.

In order to improve the dissolution and dispersibility of cocoa, it is desirable to form granules with as many internal voids as possible. Therefore, transfer granulation and fluidized granulation are preferred over granulation methods that tend to produce granules with fewer voids, such as extrusion granulation. It is preferable to perform granulation using a granulation method that produces granules with a large number of voids.

Furthermore, granules with many voids can also be obtained by using a small amount of binder solution to form wet granules with many air bubbles inside, and allowing them to stand and dry.

Although it is possible to make cocoa powder into granules without using a binder during granulation, the granules may become brittle, so it is preferable to use a binder in the granulation.

If you use a binder that is difficult to dissolve in water, the dissolution and dispersibility of the granules will be poor, so it is better to drink cocoa than sugars such as sugar, foods containing soluble proteins such as powdered milk, gums, and thickeners. Be sure to select and use a substance that does not impair the water content and is easily soluble in water.

Note that a binder solution can also be prepared by adding a powdered binder to cocoa powder in advance and adding water thereto.

Therefore, when using so-called adjusted cocoa powder, which is a mixture of cocoa powder, sugar, powdered milk, etc., it is possible to achieve the same state as when adding a binder solution by simply adding water without adding a binder. The dissolved and dispersed surfactant is sprayed, and the granules and the surfactant are brought into contact and mixed.

This results in granules whose surfaces and inner surfaces of the voids are covered with the surfactant.

The surfactant used here can be used as long as it dissolves and disperses in liquid fats and oils, but in order to improve the dissolution and dispersibility of cocoa, it is recommended to use a surfactant with strong hydrophilic properties. It's m-t. In other words, it is desirable to use a surfactant in which not only the hydrophilic group but also the lipophilic group has high polarity; for example, a surfactant with a small molecular size of the lipophilic group, or a surfactant with a double bond, 20, or -OH in the lipophilic group. Things look promising.

In addition, liquid oil has the effect of diluting the surfactant and distributing it throughout the granules, and by using liquid oil, the surface active agent has greater polarity than when solid oil is used. It has become possible to dissolve and disperse chemicals as well. Note that the Σ liquid oil used must be well-refined so that it does not give off an unpleasant taste or odor when drinking the cocoa.If the amount is too high, oil droplets may appear on the surface when the cocoa is dissolved and dispersed. 1 (per 100 parts by weight, the same applies hereafter)]
The amount is 10 parts, more preferably 1 to 5 parts.

The amount of surfactant in liquid fats and oils is determined by the type of surfactant and the state of the granules, but if the amount is too small, the effect will be low, and if it is too large, it will be economically disadvantageous or it will be difficult to spray small liquids. 1 for every 100 parts of liquid oil and fat, which becomes difficult to mix evenly throughout the rice grains.
．． 5 to 60 parts should be dissolved and dispersed.

The easily soluble cocoa obtained in this way can be easily dissolved when added to not only hot water but also cold water or cold milk.The granules are then kept in a fluid state and the surfactant dissolved and dispersed in the liquid fat is sprayed onto the granules. , it is very convenient because it can be made directly into more easily soluble cocoa than cocoa powder.

Next, the present invention will be explained by examples.

Example 1 100 parts of cocoa granules obtained by crushing and sifting a block of cocoa powder compression-molded using a roll were placed in a fluidizing device, and in a fluidized state, a surfactant (glycerin fatty acid ester) was added to 100 parts of N liquid oil. 4 parts of a surfactant solution dissolved and dispersed at a ratio of 40 parts was sprayed to obtain easily soluble cocoa.

This easily soluble cocoa dissolved easily when hot water was poured into it. In addition, when easily soluble cocoa was added to a cold sugar solution (10% bath solution) and stirred, a cold cocoa drink was obtained.

Example 2 20 parts of cocoa powder, 20 parts of powdered milk, and 120 parts of sand were placed in a fluidized granulator, and granulated while spraying water to form wet granules, followed by fluidized drying to remove all the binders of sugar and milk powder. Get the cocoa granules. Next, the granules are placed in a fluidized granulator and blown with air to bring them into a fluidized state. Next, cocoa granules (100
2 parts) was sprayed with 2 parts of a surfactant (sucrose organic acid ester) dissolved in 6 parts of purified liquid fat to obtain easily soluble cocoa.

When added to chilled milk, easily soluble cocoa sank to the surface without floating to the surface, and was easily dissolved and dispersed when stirred.

Furthermore, when cocoa granules 10- before being treated with a surfactant are added to chilled milk in the same way, they float on the surface without sinking, and even when this is stirred, most of the granules do not sink or dissolve. There was no dispersion.

Put 100 parts (not treated with active agent) into a flow device to make it fluid, and dissolve surfactant (1 part propylene glycol organic acid ester and 5 parts soybean phospholipid) in 3 parts purified liquid fat. The mixture was dispersed and sprayed with the following to obtain easily soluble cocoa.

Easily soluble cocoa sinks immediately when placed in cold water,
When stirred, it was easily dissolved and dispersed, yielding cold cocoa.

Example 4 After thoroughly mixing 15 parts of cocoa powder, 25 parts of skim milk powder, and 60 parts of sugar, 100 parts of cocoa granules, which were compression-molded, crushed, and separated, were placed in an auxiliary device and brought into a fluid state. None, 1 part of Kozue liquid oil (surfactant for 1 part)
A surfactant 7114 MiS dissolved and dispersed in a ratio of 1 part glycerin organic acid ester) 1 F) was sprayed to form easily soluble cocoa.

Easily soluble cocoa sank immediately when added to chilled water or milk, but was easily dissolved and dispersed when stirred.

Note that when the cocoa granules before being treated with a surfactant were placed in cold water or milk, they floated on the surface for a while, but when stirred, they sank down and were dissolved and dispersed. but,
Some granules remained in this product, and when I drank it, it had a rough and unpleasant texture.

Pelletize into wet granules using a granulator. Next, the wet granules are placed in a fluidized dryer and dried to form cocoa granules.The surfactant (1 part of sorbitan organic acid ester) is dissolved and dispersed in purified liquid fat (7 parts) while maintaining the fluid state. The mixture was sprayed to obtain easily soluble and pourable cocoa.

Simply pouring this easily soluble cocoa into a cup and pouring hot water over it dissolved and dispersed it, creating hot cocoa.

Also, when added to cold milk and stirred, it easily became cold milk cocoa.

Patent applicant: Morinaga & Co., Ltd. 13-

Claims (1)

[Claims] Cocoa powder or cocoa powder added with sugar, milk powder, etc. is made into granules, the granules are brought into a fluid state, and a surfactant dissolved and dispersed in liquid fat is sprayed onto the granules to contact and mix the granules and the surfactant. A method for producing easily soluble cocoa, characterized by: